He joins a short list of full-time African-American drivers in NASCAR. Wendell Scott became the only African-American to win a Cup race at Jacksonville Speedway in 1964 and raced from 1961-1973. Two others — Willy T. Ribbs (2001) and Bill Lester (2002-2007) — drove full time in the truck series with Lester earning two top-five finishes.

“African-Americans don’t have any (current) idols to look up to in this sport,” Wallace said Saturday. “You don’t have anybody. … They want to see who they can be like and they look at NASCAR and is there anybody there? No.

“When I started, I never watched NASCAR. I watched some races, but I never was like, ‘I want to be like him.’ I just jumped in it and we started winning and just kept going.”

Wallace, a 19-year-old from Mobile, Ala., has spent the last three seasons in the K&N Pro Series East while also running select Nationwide Series races. He knows his emergence with a full-time truck ride will garner extra attention, something he’s been used to since doing a BET reality show at age 16 that covered NASCAR’s diversity program.

“I’ve been the same color since I’ve started out — I’ve only gotten taller,” Wallace said. “I’ve been racing for nine years. I’m pretty good with it now.

“You’ve just got to go out there and put it in the back of your mind. The main thing in the front of your head is doing the best that you can.”

Wallace was part of the NASCAR diversity team (Rev Racing) in 2010 and 2011 before driving for JGR in 2012.

JGR, owned by NFL Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, started a diversity program a decade ago with NFL Hall of Famer Reggie White, who died in December 2004.

“When we started with Reggie, the idea was for him to be an owner and bring diversity to the sport, which is hard,” JGR President J.D. Gibbs said. “In football, you can be a good athlete. In basketball, you can shoot the ball. Over here, you have to have financial resources to make it work.

“Darrell is really poised to take that step and bring more fans to the sport.”

Aric Almirola, of Cuban descent, was a graduate of NASCAR’s diversity program and now races in Sprint Cup for Richard Petty Motorsports.

But it’s no secret that NASCAR is anxious for an African-American driver to have success — NASCAR President Mike Helton was part of the Wallace announcement Saturday.

Marc Davis, a member of the JGR program who finished fifth in the East series in 2008, made 13 NASCAR national series starts from 2008-2011 but never landed a full-time ride and had a best finish of 16th in the truck series. Chase Austin had nine national series starts from 2007-2010 but with one top-15 finish, never could attract full-time sponsorship. Neither had a stable, well-funded ride.

“Joe and J.D. brought Reggie White to NASCAR and said, ‘We want to help NASCAR develop a program that we can tear down the barriers — the perception to NASCAR — that we have,” Helton said.

“Reggie passed away and Joe and J.D. kept that energy alive, which is really the heart and soul of NASCAR’s efforts. Darrell is a great example of that opportunity turning into progression of his career.”

Progression hasn’t been easy. While he has won six NASCAR East events, Wallace had subpar results in 2012, where he scored one victory but finished a disappointing seventh in the standings a year after a runnerup season in 2011.

JGR hoped to put him in the Nationwide Series full time in 2013 but sponsorship didn’t materialize. Wallace had one pole and three top-10 finishes in four Nationwide starts last year with a best finish of seventh at Iowa.

“In the East Series, part of that was our fault — we did the team and we kind of messed up in some areas (with the) cars that we could have probably done a better job,” J.D. Gibbs said.

“What you saw on the Nationwide side, he popped right out there and he doesn’t have a whole lot of experience.”

JGR, which has deepened its relationship with KBM this season, was able to get enough funding from Toyota, Coca-Cola and some other sponsors still to be named to put Wallace in a truck for the full season (sponsorship for a top truck typically runs $3-4 million while a top Nationwide ride is $6 million-plus).

“What we don’t want to do is (for him to) push too hard and make mistakes,” J.D. Gibbs said. “Just be consistent — if you have a car that can run up front, great, take it. If you’re midpack, just take what you’ve got there.

“He wants to go make his mark, and he can do it. What you don’t want to do is go out there and tear stuff up and get in situations you could have avoided.”

Wallace will have veteran Jerry Baxter as his crew chief. Baxter has worked with several young drivers in his career, including Cale Gale at Eddie Sharp Racing last year.

The car will carry the truck number 54. Wallace, who has never raced at a track bigger than a mile, will run the ARCA race at Daytona for Venturini Motorsports to gain NASCAR approval to race at Daytona later this month.

“I’m going to do the best I can to make that number from three (African-Americans) to 30 by 10 years or so,” Wallace said. “I don’t really worry about not making it. I just take it one week at a time.”